An online home to showcase and discuss interesting articles, interviews and other media about actors associated with all the various "Star Trek" television shows and movies. I also write on equal rights, social justice issues, INFJ-isms, film & television production, urban homesteading and whatever blows up my skirt. Figuratively speaking.
In addition, I'm working on setting up a new urban homesteading blog - stay tuned.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Alice Eve - Women and New Trek

While playing on Tumblr the other day, I ran across a
wonderful quote from Alice Eve, who portrays the character Dr. Carol Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness. During an interview, the interviewer had the nerve to ask her -
“Aren’t you a little bit too beautiful to be a science officer?” To which Alice replied, “That’s very kind of
you. I’m very flattered. But I didn’t know those things were mutually
exclusive.”

There really is not much else to be said here, because Alice
succinctly laid out the truth. This
culture of ours equates beauty with stupidity.
The flip side, with which I am more intimately familiar, is that
intelligence might be the only redeeming quality of a woman who is not
traditionally beautiful. Both
assumptions are insulting and misogynistic.
Truth is much, much more complicated.

When I went searching for pix of Alice on Google for this
post, it took quite a while to find a few that I considered adequate – though
there were plenty of pictures from the gratuitous underwear scene. Now, don’t get me wrong. Alice is beautiful and should rightly enjoy
it, and she can do whatever the hell she wants to do. Much has been made of this scene. Defenders of this scene then site the Kirk
underwear scene as equal opportunity nudity. But in comparing the two scenes, what did they bring to the table? Kirk’s scene said something about his character, it built on something established in
the last film, that Kirk likes women of all kinds, and it actually stands in
contrast to the later beginnings of a relationship with Carol Marcus. What did the Marcus underwear scene bring to
the table? It did not clarify anything or present any new information; it didn't make sense that the character would need to undress right then. Just to set things straight - I am no prude and nudity is just fine, but use it to move the story forward, shall we? I know that the writers learned their lesson from the flack they have received...Damon Lindelof went on Twitter and set things straight, which I appreciate (and will post). Let's hope it holds true.

Star Trek Into Darkness had wonderful acting by an incredibly talented cast, a decent story line, incredible
special effects, beautiful music.
However, I was hoping this film would get back to Classic Trek’s roots – showing diversity, equality, in treating crewmen as crewmen, regardless of gender. I find it rather sad that a show created in
the 1960’s portrayed more diversity and sexual equality than a movie made in
2011. When I initially saw Aisha Hinds in
the Navigator’s Chair sitting in for Chekov, I had momentary hopes that she was
transgender. For a few days I thought
maybe JJ Abrams had really gone where no one had gone before in Star Trek and
created a queer character as part of the bridge crew. Since I do
not watch television, I had no idea initially that she is “just” a big,
beautiful black woman, as I had never seen her other television work. (More on Aisha Hinds in another post dedicated
only to this actress; I discovered many interesting things while investigating
her). My hopes were dashed...to a degree, because just having her there as an additional Navigator is fantastic.

While no one would ever
question Zoe Saldana portraying Uhura’s commanding presence on the bridge like “they”
did in the 60’s (thank you, Nichelle Nichols!), not are any eyebrows raised at
interracial/interspecies kisses between Spock and Uhura, there is much work
still to be done. I did take note that
around half of the commanding officers and first officers in the scene where
Khan opens fire at Star Fleet headquarters are women, and I also noted specific
camera work establishing/re-establishing female characters on the bridge and
elsewhere on the ship, specifically when Kirk had a channel open to the entire
ship. Those shots could only have been
executed by JJ Abrams, so not all is lost.
However, we also lost a beloved Classic Trek character, Christine Chapel, in a throwaway one-sentence
establishing how much Kirk had hurt her feelings that she fled to the outer
edges of space. So much for one of the
most visible female roles from Classic Trek
(maybe we can hope that Chapel reconsidered, and was assigned to the
Enterprise in the year gap between the events of STID and the beginning of the five year mission. Oh, dear.
My geek is really showing now). I hope in the last (?) Trek film to be made, they do move honorably towards treating
characters with integrity, regardless of gender or gender identity or orientation. That would be nice to see.

Thank you to Alice Eve for this wonderful quote and having
the courage to stick up for your character, and by extension, yourself. It sounds like you were much more gracious
than I would have been! My only wish is
that I had been able to find the interview that this quote came from, and I
failed to find it.

There
is so much more to be said. More posts
to be written. More stereotypes to be called
out. Maybe the next Trek movie can have queer characters, fully developed female
characters and men who don’t have to be macho and fearless – oh, wait, STID did that. And did it well. The male characters were very well written
and portrayed, with beautiful character development - Kirk, Spock, and Scotty especially. This cast is so mesmerizing to watch, I
really regret that there may be only one more film. Ah, well, that’s why we must incorporate
these values into our everyday lives and make it happen in reality, not just in
fantasy and mythology. Fantasy and
mythology are worthless unless we learn the lessons inherent within the
stories. Use today, for it will never
come again. If you identify as female,
do something against type. If you
identify as male, use your male privilege to stick up for women. Boldly go.

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About Me

I am a single mom raising a special needs child while working and trying to figure out life. Oh, and I worked on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: First Contact once upon a time (and some other shows and movies). I am a preschool teacher, voracious reader, mosaic artist, urban homesteader, a poet and a thinker. I am an unapologetic do-gooder with delusions of reality; a kitchen witch who raises children and vegetables and who wants to save the world. All of these words describe everything and nothing about me. I am a catalyst. Boldly go.